[rjb]

eBay seems to do everything in their power to prevent usability. Auctomatic hopefully will capitalize on this.

[create_account]

What happens if ebay decides they don't like what they're doing, and shuts them out or makes it hard to connect?

[rjb]

Of course always a possibility (myspace/photobucket), but I was just supporting Auctomatic's decision seeing as at every turn eBay seems to make their tools harder and harder to use.

There are a million reasons why Auctomatic shouldn't bother, but if they are a great team you'll never be able to convince them of that.

[dpapathanasiou]

Or just copies them.

I suppose their plan is to have ebay buy them out, and given that they've spent so little, a nice seven figure sum might work for all parties.

Then again, how open is ebay to something like this? Other sites don't mind if you use their api to make enhancements, but is ebay one of them?

[rms]

What if they got a large enough user base and opened their own auction site?

[nickb]

Huh? Have you seen this?

http://www.projectsandimas.com/

Good luck beating this... it's a dream app. I've seen it demoed and power sellers were all drooling.

[rjb]

I have not seen this... Cool. Historically though eBay has never put any effort into creating a user friendly experience. "San Dimas" may be a sign that they are wising up and starting to realize that maybe they do have things to fear. It begs to ask, what took so long? Fear? A feeling that any change would detour users or add a new learning curve their users could not handle? Was making it a desktop version a compromise, fear that it would scare their online users? (I have no idea of course)

PayPal kicked ass, why not Auctomatic? May not be the best comparison, but one thing paypal taught us is that the idea of "ownership of users" is very blurred.

You make a very good point, Auctomatic may really have their work cut out for them. But that's what makes it fun, right?

[jason13]

I guess it would be to eBays benefit to let people use Auctomatic. And I guess it be easier for eBay to buy Auctomatic then to copy eBay.

[jason13]

I guess it would be to eBays benefit to let people use Auctomatic. And I guess it be easier for eBay to buy Auctomatic then to copy eBay.